Memories of First Darshan

A Column of Light

My contact with the Mother started in 1953, when I came here as a student of the Post Graduate Course in Ecology in the Botany department of Annamalai University. My professor Dr. T.C.N. Singh had brought us here, so that he could place the entire team who were working on "The Effect of Music on Plants" before the Mother. She used to encourage that experiment. The first time I saw Her in 1953 was in the Playground where activities were going on. We stood in a line and I bowed down at Her Feet. She straightaway gave me the Hymn to Durga, which was the first book I received from Her. I thought it was over with that. All the students who were with me left and I too was going out but just stood at the entrance to the Playground and looked to my right — by then She had moved from Her seat near the map to the classroom where She was taking the classes. As I stared, I saw a column of light and I was stuck to the place. Tears were rolling down my eyes; I could not move. I do not know how much time elapsed till somebody came and prompted me, "Come on, all the people have left." So, that was my first contact with the Divine Mother. It started like that and never left me afterwards.

- Dayanand

(Darshan – Remembering Sweet Mother and Sri Aurobindo, published by Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research, Auroville, 2006, p. 114)